Carter School welcomes Walk for Peace to Northern Virginia

From October to mid-February, the Venerable Buddhist monks of the Dhammacetiya Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center of Fort Worth, Texas walked more than 2,300 miles to Washington, D.C. Known as the Walk for Peace, their goal was to raise awareness of the global need for peace as well as how we can practice and foster peace in our own lives and neighborhoods. 

On February 8 and 9, students and staff from George Mason University’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution gathered together in the cold and wind to greet and witness the Walk for Peace.  

The monks, ranging in age from 29-68, represent monasteries and temples from around the globe. In past years, they have gathered for walks in other locations across the globe, including India, Cambodia, and Thailand. They gather when there is a sense that the world is in crisis, and peace is especially needed. 

On Sunday, February 8, Carter School undergraduates Angelina Di Matteo and Grace McIntyre traveled to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, to greet the monks as they arrived for their lunch break at the Chùa Hoa Nghiêm temple. Carter School doctoral student Heather Rosso was one of the volunteers escorting the monks as they arrived at the temple. 

Rosso had been following the Walk for Peace on Facebook when she noticed a call for volunteers at the Virginia locations and volunteered. “We were told to be prepared for anything, including the cold weather, so I bundled up and headed to the temple.”

Rosso’s assignment was to escort the monks through the temple grounds while maintaining crowd control and respect for the monks. In addition to typical crowd control for an event, the monks required special care and attention. “For monastic reasons, we had to be sure nobody touched or approached the monks.”

"It was an amazing experience," said Rosso, who studies U.S. mass violence, extremism, and coercive control. "It was bitter cold and windy, filled with love and peace, long hours on our feet, and over in what seemed like the blink of an eye. I was so honored to have been among those chosen to assist as a volunteer that morning."

The next day, February 9, one of the last days of the walk, George Mason students, members of the Carter School, and Mason Square faculty and staff greeted the monks as they passed by  Vernon Smith Hall at Mason Square in Arlington, Virginia. They were joined by the Rotarians from District 7620. The Rotary is a Carter School partner organization, as both share a mission of fostering peace locally and globally. Participants laid yellow flower petals along the monks’ path, and greeted them with a banner, flowers, and signs representing the Carter School for peace studies. 

The gathering was an incredible experience filled with “fellowship, hope, peacefulness, healing, resilience,” said Shirley Al-Jarani, director of operations for the George Mason University Instructional Foundation (GMUIF). Al-Jarani captured the experience well when she recalled, “The hope I felt as a group of virtual strangers [as we] talked in fellowship getting to know each other realizing we may never meet again but we were connected in that moment and stood together in solidarity for peace and hope.”